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The fund-raising executive from UT Southwestern Medical Center phoned first. Then she sent an urgent email to the president’s office about the patient.

“We need to expedite care,” Cynthia “Cyndi” Bassel wrote last year. She asked the president’s aide whether he would call two of the patient’s UTSW doctors “to help speed things along.”

“If not,” Bassel said in the email, “I can handle.”

Such emails, which we recently obtained, shed new light on the intersection of medicine and fund-raising at UTSW.

We first learned of that in 2007, after receiving a leaked UTSW list of people designated for favored treatment. The state-supported institution had insisted VIPs didn’t get better or faster care at its university hospitals — just “non-medical courtesies,” such as free valet parking and an unlisted after-hours number to reach doctors.

In response to the emails, UTSW spokeswoman Nimisha Savani said all patients receive the “same prompt attention” and “in no instance is a physician asked to ‘bump’ a patient to accommodate one of these requests.” (Full response here.)

Texas law says only charities and nonprofits can hold raffles. But that hasn’t stopped some law-enforcement folks — such as Dallas County Constables Derick Evans and Jaime Cortes from using them to raise campaign cash, The Dallas Morning News‘ Kevin Krause and Ed Timms reported over the weekend.

Some of the constables’ employees say they’ve been pressured to sell the tickets. The constables, through their lawyers, deny wrongdoing.

Do you have a tip about constables? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

The Texas attorney general’s office built this little database, which shows that donations to many of the fund-raising groups are not tax-deductible. And a lot of the donations go to overhead, not to needy cops.

“Each year, many generous Texans provide financial support to organizations that purport to benefit peace officers and their families,” AG Greg Abbott said. “The online resource launched today ensures contributors have easy access to these organizations’ financial information. As a result, Texans can make informed decisions and determine the percentage of their dollars that will actually benefit peace officers.”